The Man of her Dreams
by betweenacts
Summary: Donna Noble hates Christmas. So when the Doctor tells her that time of the year has arived she starts remembering when she was 22 and getting herself to some conclusions. written for the 2011 Secret Santa at the Doctor/Donna community on LJ.


Donna Noble was happy with her job, she was only twenty-two and it was just a temporary job anyway, but the boss liked her and rumour had it that he was going to hire her full time. Her boyfriend, Samuel, was a nice bloke she could always trust and she was sure he was going to ask her to marry him one of these days.

Because of that, she decided that it was probably time to introduce him to her family. It was the week before Christmas and Sylvia went on and on about how it was bloody time, she finally had a boyfriend.

Her mother set the table perfectly, Wilf was in the living room chatting away and Samuel was barely listening. Geoff was telling jokes in an attempt to help Donna relax.

"So, Samuel, do you work at the office with Donna?" Sylvia asked.

"No, I work at the shop nearby..." his voice trailed off as he saw Sylvia's face fall.

"I thought you worked at the office... Oh well."

"Let's move this to the table, shall we?" Geoff suggested.

The dinner was a messy affair, with Sylvia bickering and Samuel trying to charm her, and failing. As he left that night he promised to call the next day.

"You scared the boy off, like you always do. You will end up single, you will see" Sylvia said as she rinsed the dishes. Donna bit her tongue as she thought that it was actually Sylvia that had scared him off, but she was sure he was going to call.

The call never came; soon twenty-two became twenty-eight. Samuel became Damien, and Alex and that other one whose name she simply couldn't pronounce; and Donna had basically decided to give up. Every day she would go out with Veena and, why not, Nerys. And she started to enjoy temping; it meant she could always meet new people. Right?

There was always a voice in the back of her head, - which strangely sounded an awful lot like her mother's, - reminding her that her time was running out. She was probably not going to get married and even if she was, what were the chances of the guy wanting children?

And she wanted children, so much. And she wanted a man who would sweep her off her feet, show her wonders she never thought she would see and make her laugh. Then her mother would yell at her to get a life, get a better job, and pretty herself up so that bloke next door would notice her. None of this was likely to happen.

* * *

><p>It was Christmas, or so The Doctor told her and Donna Noble was thinking about when she was twenty-two.<p>

She was not swimming in money as she dreamed she would be when she reached her age, but she had everything she needed and more. She didn't work, but she had a job, she finally had that something she'd been looking for all her life without even knowing. She didn't have a significant other, but she had forever.

"I believe maybe it's time for you to go home." The Doctor said as he approached her in the kitchen. She settled her cup of tea down so it wouldn't slip out of her hands.

"What did I do? You've been poking the TARDIS all day, it's not my fault we landed in not only a different time but a different planet last time you were aiming for Planet whatever-its-called. And if you are daring to blame me for getting your hair blue on the seas of Planet Zog, I'm going to slap you into next week!" she shouted, then her voice got soft, as if it was breaking on the edges "Please don't make me go..." Finally the penny dropped, so she slapped his arm hard. "Don't do that to me!"

"Turnabout is fair play, my lady." He said smiling cheekily and rubbing his arm. "It hurt."

"It was supposed to." she said seriously, but couldn't stop herself from smiling back; she did kind of deserve that one, if you ask. "Why did you even say that?"

"I told you, it's Christmas. Or as much Christmas as it's going to get since time here on the TARDIS runs in a different speed and..."

"I hate Christmas."

"I know, but you love Wilf."

"Yeah, I do... But if I go, you come with me."

"I'm not going to spend Christmas with your mother..."

"But you love Gramps."

"Yeah, I do..." they shared a grin and turned around to get ready.

As they landed in a street near The Nobles' residency, the Doctor tried at least five times to back out, but Donna took his hand and basically dragged him to the doorstep with her.

"My mum is not a monster you know, you are the alien here."

"Keep telling yourself that."

She aimed for his arm but he was faster. Donna was fishing for her keys when Sylvia opened the door.

"Oh, so you decided to remember you have a family, young lady?"

"Merry Christmas!" Donna and the Doctor said in unison.

They set the table. Sylvia made Donna help her, and Wilf and the Doctor talked about stars in the meantime.

"Why did you bring this... man here on Christmas? Every time he is near bad things happen. Especially if it's Christmas, poor Lance, whatever happened to him..."

"Can we not talk about Lance?" Donna wondered if her mother really needed to remind her of Lance so often, but the redhead realized if it was not for her ex-fiancé she wouldn't have met the Doctor, her Spaceman.

**Her** Spaceman? She shook her head and tried to remember when she started using possessive pronouns to describe him.

Donna walked back to the table and sat beside the Doctor, who was sure to get himself all dirty, so she got the napkin and put it on his neck.

"You treat him like a baby, but won't do anything I ask you." Sylvia said sitting too.

Wilf was eating happily, and so was the Doctor. Donna amused herself by looking at the Doctor and her beloved grandfather.

"Are you not going to eat? Finally on that diet I told you to go on years ago, yeah?" And then she was on and on about Suzette's daughter's marriage.

In order to keep the Christmas spirit – which Donna hated – alive, she kept herself silent, knowing it would be for the best and that her mother would eventually grow tired, or too tipsy with wine, to go on.

"They found out she is pregnant, Suzette is ecstatic that she is going to be a grandmother. Must be a great feeling..."

"Stop!" The Doctor said startling everyone in the table and finally making Sylvia shut up. "Your daughter is one of the most amazing women I have ever had the pleasure to meet. She is caring, full of compassion and she has a wit she never even knew she did because the one who should be encouraging her was always putting her down."

Donna had always wanted a man who would sweep her off her feet. Show her wonders she never thought she would see and make her laugh. Her mind was suddenly full with images of herself and her daft spaceman. Suddenly it was as clear as daylight; as if a lightning had struck her on the head. The Doctor, despite being the skinniest man she'd even known and so not her type – theoretically - , was that one person she'd been looking for her entire life without even realizing.

Sylvia's eyes were wide and Wilf had half-chocked on the turkey before he decided it was best to remain silent. The Doctor was standing up and then Donna realized another thing: they had been talking for minutes and she didn't hear a word.

She stood up.

"Marry Christmas, Mum. It's always a pleasure to see you." she took a deep breath. "Merry Christmas, Gramps, I will come to see you on a Wednesday night." With that, she turned on her heel and began to walk away. "Hey, Time Boy, aren't you coming?" And then she was out.

At that moment, Donna was secretly experiencing a minor panic-attack that made her wonder if she was perhaps having a stroke.

Once they were inside the Blue Box, Donna started talking.

"I hate Christmas, you know. When I was five Mum tried to put me in a huge anti-nausea medicine-pink dress that made me look like some sort of... candy, so I accidentally put fire on it. She never forgave me, she says that..."

"You always talk, but you never say anything." The Doctor said simply.

"What do you want to know, Spaceman?"

"Why were you so quiet tonight?"

"Apart from my mother's words of love?"

"Yes." he crossed his arms in front of his body. "You always could take them. You were always able and willing to fight back. But not tonight."

"When I was 22, I brought my boyfriend home to dinner, it was the week before Christmas. Mum nagged at him for working at a shop, he said he would call, I thought he would ask me to marry him... I never saw him again. The whole thing with Lance? Christmas. I just don't have the best luck when I bring men home for this holiday."

"Good thing I'm a Time Lord, then." and so he was off to pilot the TARDIS back into the Vortex. Donna approached him. "Still hate Christmas, right?"

She kissed him. She just had to know what it was like to kiss the man, time lord, whatever; how it was to kiss the someone she'd been looking for her whole life, without the anchovies and ginger beer. They parted due to lack of air, which means a lot with the Doctor having the by-pass system.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Merry Christmas." she whispered.

She knew it was the beginning of a relationship with a man that would never run away from her mother. Maybe Christmas didn't bring her such bad luck, after all.


End file.
